Labor Day demonstrates Mexican workers' anger

The Mexican government and the government-dominated
union Confederacin de
Trabajadores de Mexico (CTM) canceled the
traditional May Day labor celebration this
year, in an attempt by CTM not to further
embarass the government of President Ernesto
Zedillo. Labor had little to celebrate, with 600,000
jobs lost during the first two months
of 1995 alone, and with current incomes the
lowest seen since 1935. With the
government's celebration canceled, throngs of
angry workers flooded into the Zcalo (the
central plaza in Mexico City), demanding jobs,
wage increases, peace with justice for the
Zapatistas, and the resignation of President
Ernesto Zedillo and of regent Oscar
Espinosa, who orchestrated the dismantling of
Ruta 100.

Ruta 100, the 4,000-bus, 14,000-driver transit
service for the Federal District, was
dissolved by the government on April 8. The
government charged that Sutaur-100 (the
Ruta 100 union) had diverted $4 million of
public money to the union and had links to
radical groups including the Zapatistas. On April
10, Luis Miguel Moreno Gomez, chief
of Ruta 100, died in his office of two gunshot
wounds. The government says that he
committed suicide, but others remain suspicious
of that explanation. After taking over
Ruta 100, the government dismissed union
drivers and began hiring replacements.

Marchers expressed solidarity with Sutaur-100,
and heard a message from Ricardo
Barco, a jailed officer of Sutaur-100, calling for
organization of unions independent of
the government, and for defense of collective
bargaining, the right to strike, and union
autonomy.

Laborers were joined in the Zcalo by farm
workers, government employees, and
representatives of social organizations. Speakers
called for the reversal of neo-liberal
government policies that they claimed benefit
only bankers and speculators. They also
denounced suppression of independent unions
in various parts of the country.

Estimates of the size of the crowd ranged from
30,000 (according to government
television stations) to 70,000 (New York Times)
to 100,000 (various news agencies) to
300,000 (police on the scene) to 1,500,000
(organizers of the demonstration). While
politicians, including the PRD's Cuahtemoc
Crdenas, attended the gathering, they
were relegated to silence, by agreement of the
organizers. After the crowd had gathered
under the hot noonday sun, some began to attack
the National Palace, throwing bottles,
sticks, and stones, and breaking windows, with
some even trying to set fire to the doors.
Police took video and still photographs as
demonstrators spray-painted anti-government
slogans on the seat of government.
The videos were later used to identify
and arrest nineteen of the participants.

Eventually, police confronted demonstrators, and
some young people among the
demonstrators attacked, throwing stones and
bottles against the full-length acrylic
shields carried by police. Police held their ground
until organizers of the demonstration
arrived on the scene, denouncing the presence of
paid provocateurs. The rock and
bottle-throwing episode lasted for less than 30
minutes and involved few of the
demonstrators gathered for the nearly four-hour
observance.